


This Time Around

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Comment Fic 2016 [64]
Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2018-08-11 08:42:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7884403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Gilmore Girls, Rory Gilmore, she became a teenage mother, too."</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Time Around

Lorelai was angry and hurt and scared when she found out what Rory had done with Dean - Dean, who was still married (but divorced soon thereafter).  
  
Lorelai was numb when Rory came to her sobbing one day, pregnancy test in hand.  
  
They both stared at the little plus sign on the plastic stick, and Lorelai saw her daughter’s beautiful life wash down the drain. No Yale. No big future as a world-traveling journalist.  
  
Then Lorelai sucked in a deep breath and reminded herself that Rory was older, was a little wiser, was a hell of a lot smarter than Lorelai was as a teenager, and Lorelai had a life, a good life. She could help Rory do the same.  
  
Lorelai dreaded facing her parents with this news, and every time the phone rang, every time there was a knock at the door, her stomach felt like it was lined with lead.  
  
When she finally convinced herself to open the door, she was unprepared for who was on the other side of the door.  
  
Dean.  
  
She slammed the door in his face, waited, listened, but there were no retreating footsteps.  
  
He knocked again.  
  
Lorelai wrenched the door open. “You -”  
  
“I want to do right by Rory,” he said.   
  
“So eager to rush into another marriage?”  
  
He flinched, but then he lifted his chin. “I’m not going to ask Rory to marry me just for the baby, not if she doesn’t want to. Doesn’t mean I can’t do my best to be a good father.”  
  
Lorelai remembered how much Dean had reminded her of Christopher and wished she’d ridden that train of thought to the end of the line.  
  
Rory refused to talk to Dean, wouldn’t even see him. But he got a place of his own, kept on working at Doose’s, picked up a second job working at Gypsy’s garage. He pulled extra shifts and all he ever seemed to do was work. He asked Lorelai to keep him updated on Rory’s doctor appointments even though Rory didn’t want him along, and three months into his endeavors, he brought Lorelai a slip of paper with the name of a bank and account number written on it, along with the designation ‘baby fund’.  
  
When Lorelai went to the bank and looked at the balance, she wondered if Dean ever slept, if he ever ate. Christopher’s parents had tried to throw money at her, but Dean’s parents were quiet.   
  
Until the day Clara knocked on the door with a box of - things. Baby things, in gender neutral colors. Blankets and onesies, hats and booties.  
  
And that was when it became real. Rory’s morning sickness, her mood swings, Lorelai could tell herself it was illness, it was flu, it was something else.  
  
But the bibs with the matching burp cloths - all obviously homemade, because Lorelai had made her own as well - were what undid it all.  
  
“I’ve been helping my mom,” Clara said proudly. “She and dad are really excited.”  
  
“Excited?” Lorelai snapped out of her daze.  
  
Clara nodded. “Yeah. I mean, they yelled at Dean for hours at first, and then wouldn’t talk to him, and they pretend to be all huffy about it, because he was married to Lindsey, but they’re actually really excited, because they thought Dean would never be able to, you know, help a lady have kids.”  
  
No one had referred to Rory as a lady in a long time. Mrs. Kim would literally cross the street to avoid Rory when she dared to emerge from the house.  
  
“Why not?”   
  
Clara shrugged. “I guess it’s from all the chemo Dean went through when he was little. I was super little, so I don’t remember it, but I guess the doctors told Mom and Dad that Dean would never be able to be a father.” She looked a little nervous and said, “I’m not supposed to know about it, and, um, maybe you should keep it a secret?”  
  
Chemo. Dean. When he was little. He’d never mentioned it. He was tall and handsome and strong, took regular hits playing football and hockey.  
  
“I’ll keep it a secret,” Lorelai said. “Tell your mom thanks.”  
  
“Mom says you and Rory are invited over for dinner on Sunday if you want,” Clara added. She waved and trotted away.  
  
Lorelai carried the box into the house and set it down on the coffee table. Suddenly Dean’s fervor made sense, his dedication to this baby he’d never even seen (though Lorelai, out of pity, might have sneaked him some of the ultrasound photos).

She went and knocked on Rory’s door.  
  
“I’m studying,” Rory said. If she couldn’t go to Yale, she was going to finish school, and if UConn was all she had, she’d take it.  
  
“We need to talk.”  
  
Rory pulled open the door, then went back to her desk with her textbooks.  
  
“I know you’re angry at Dean,” Lorelai said.  
  
“Do you?”  
  
“I’m quite possibly the only person in the world who knows how you feel right now,” Lorelai said, “except I haven’t kicked you out of the house and freaked out at you, like my parents did. But Dean is working really hard, and your baby will need both of you.”  
  
“I only needed you.”  
  
“Your father has always been there for you,” Lorelai said. “And if Dean is willing to stay close, work hard, help you with your child, raising that child will be easier.”  
  
“But -”  
  
“It was hard for me, Rory. I don’t regret one second of it, because I love you, and you’re amazing. But if Christopher had been willing to do what Dean is doing now, imagine how much more awesome your life would be. Dad there for every school play, your one dance recital with Miss Patty’s ballet class, your science fair projects. All of it.”  
  
Rory closed her eyes. “This is all my fault.”  
  
“It takes two,” Lorelai reminded her.  
  
Rory opened her eyes. “Yes, it does.” She reached for her cell phone, dialed a number.  
  
From memory. Lorelai wondered how many times she’d dialed it and never pushed the send button.  
  
“Hey, Dean. How are you doing? Oh, that’s good. Lunch breaks are nice. Listen, I go back in for my five-month ultrasound next week. Do you want to come? Whoa, slow down. It’s okay. I’ll give you the time and address. We’re going to find out if it’ll be a boy or a girl.”  
  
Lorelai bit her lip and watched Rory’s expression soften, saw some of the tension she’d been carrying in her shoulders for the past four and a half months ease. Then she rearranged the future she’d seen for her daughter and told herself to buck up and carry on.  
  
She was going to be a grandmother.


End file.
